Run because you can

Today, Arthur’s 77th birthday, was also his funeral. He loved to run, he loved to encourage others to run and he worked tirelessly for charity. His motto was ‘run because you can’. He could and he did.

I didn’t know Arthur all that well, he was a fellow member of the Eccleshill Road Runners and a regular at the Bradford parkrun where he recently ran his 100th race – and got the teeshirt to prove it.

He was also a stalwart of the John Carr Race, a series of three 5k races around Esholt, the Emmerdale village. The last time I saw him was at the first one, he ran it and finished with his traditional sprint, looking forward to completing the others over the following couple of weeks, the last would be on his 77th birthday. I’d given him a hug, he thanked me because he said it wasn’t half cold and it fair warmed him up. After running the parkrun three days later he returned home, spent his day doing this and that, went to bed and never woke up.

We were all shocked and saddened, but Arthur wasn’t one for the maudlin, so we celebrated him as best we could – by running the John Carr on his birthday and finishing with a sprint, led by his daughter-in-law Kim. Arthur would have liked that.